All about the world’s largest globe Eartha
Most of you must be having a globe at home. This spherical model of the Earth that comes in various sizes, was invented in 1492 by German cartographer Martin Behaim in collaboration with German painter Georg Glockendon. Many believe, it is this globe model that inspired Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus to set sail and explore the entire world.
That makes us wonder, which is the world’s largest globe? After all, the ones we have are miniature in size, even though they are pretty detailed. But schools, colleges, geography research labs, museums and planetariums, all of these places have much bigger sized globes, but which one among them is the largest? Well, that would be Eartha. If you are curious to know more, read on.
Located in DeLorme
Eartha is a 5600 pounds globe. It is the world’s largest rotating and revolving globe and is located in the earlier headquarters of DeLorme, a mapping corporation in the Yarmouth region of Maine, USA. Currently, it is owned by Garmin, an American multinational tech company. Eartha has a whopping diameter of 41 feet and was built on a scale of 1:1000,000, in which an inch is equal to 16 miles. Just like most globes, Eartha too is mounted at a 23.5 degree angle, imitating Earth’s own axial tilt. This means, the equator is diagonal to the floor.
What makes it special is that, it can both rotate and revolve. For that, Eartha uses a cantilever with two motors. In fact, it exhibits a day’s rotation and revolution, once every 18 minutes. The motors also allow the globe to fully rotate itself in less than a minute, if customised. In addition, the globe is built around a spherical structure called Omni Span that is comprised of 6000 units of aluminium tubes. They are in turn covered by 792 plastic panels that gives it 8 degrees of latitude and longitude.
Interestingly, Eartha is enclosed in an atrium (a large, open-air, or skylight covered space, surrounded by a building) with several see-through glass walls that allows it to be visible from many miles outside, even from U.S. Route 1. You will also be fascinated to know that the globe is beautifully lit during the night-time.
Built in 1998
Eartha may be the world’s largest globe, but it is The Fliers’ and Explorers’ Globe located in the Brooklyn division of American Geographical Society that supersedes its fame. Why? Because this 18-feet large globe is signed by not one but 85 of world’s greatest ever explorers, starting with American aviator Charles Lindbergh to Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, not to forget former NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong (the first human on the Moon) and John Glenn.
But modern-day geographers realised in the late 1990s that this globe, hand-carved by 19th century cartographer Rand McNally was neither detailed, nor up to date. This is when the former CEO of DeLorme Maps David DeLorme, who was a globe-trotter himself joined hands with surveyor and civil engineer Vincent J.P. LeBlanc to design and construct the world’s largest and most precise globe in 1996. The 792 plastic sections of the globe were developed by map technician Jeff Clark. Two years later, the project was successfully completed. Today, the globe is supported by satellite image, GPS, and more modern-day cutting-edge geographical features. It was in 1999 that Eartha was declared as the world’s largest globe by the Guinness Book, a record that it holds prestigiously till date. It beat Italy’s Globe of Peace to earn its place.